Hate Crime in KCMO

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2 Kansas City Lesbians Victims of Hate Crime; KCPD Provides Hostile Response

Kansas City, MO – The Kansas City Anti-Violence Project (KCAVP), Kansas City’s only nonprofit organization solely dedicated to providing emergency and ongoing services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and bias crimes in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, announce a violent anti-LGBT assault on two Kansas City women on July 14.

The two women were walking holding hands in the 39th street corridor of Kansas City when a car with two individuals drove by yelling anti-LGBT slurs at the women. The car came around the block again and the occupants continued to yell slurs at the two women. The car came around the block a third time, and a woman jumped out of the car with a bat and began wailing on one of the women. The suspect fled in the car after a tow truck drove by and flashed its lights.

The Kansas City, Missouri police were called to the victim’s home as a passerby took the women home. More than 30 minutes later, two officers arrived who told the women “they didn’t have to respond to the call at all” and would not acknowledge that it was a hate crime even though anti-LGBT slurs had been yelled and was motivated because the two women were walking together. The police also gave no appearance of caring or motivation to pursue who perpetrated the crime. Both women are now recovering, one with head injuries including a concussion from the bashing.

“The Kansas City, Missouri police must provide equal and compassionate service to all people,” said Doug Riley, executive director of the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project. “I would think being bashed over the head with a bat would give reason for police to come to a scene. They need to be held accountable for their inaction and insensitivity. They need to explain to the victims and to the community what is being done to solve this crime and prevent others from happening.”

KCAVP is a Missouri nonprofit corporation committed to providing services, advocacy and education for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and bias crimes within the five counties that encompass the metropolitan Kansas City area. For more information about KCAVP, visit www.kcavp.org.

http://www.kcavp.org/pressReleases/2005/20050718.htm